Originally Posted by
johnbort2
No, I haven't . I have ridden some trails around here with it AND I am not a small guy...215 pounds. Rear wheel is still as true as the day I bought it. To be fair, I haven't had it fully loaded yet, I will in May. I see a lot of stupidity on this board and saying you can't tour on a 28 spoke wheels is case and point. I am not saying I wouldn't like to have more spokes if it would have come with it, but I don't feel insecure about riding it. IF I do have problems, I will be honest and post it on here. I will post either way after my tour. If a 215 pound guy with loaded panniers and trunk bag can do a tour without the rim failing miserably(as some seem to think) then I would be glad to provide some REAL LIFE DATA, not just theory.
For gods sake, I have seen people that biked great distances loaded on $99 XXXX<insert WalMart, whatever> brand bikes....
It's not quite as simple as that. I could easily ride 24 spoke wheels unloaded and I'm heavier than you are. But putting load on the bike changes things quite drastically. You can shift your weight, lighten the front and the back of the bike on bumps, maybe even lift the wheels when there's a really heavy hit. But the load you put on the bike can't. All of the gear you put on the bike is going to be hitting directly at the wheels on every bump, hole, ridge and unevenness you ride over. If you pack very lightly this might not be an issue, if you pack heavy it's going to be a problem. Also taking weight off the wheels becomes much, much harder to do when you have even a small load on the bike. All of that contributes to wheels wearing down and that's why more spokes on a tour bike is the consensus.